The impending hardline of Benjamin Netanyahu A day before it is scheduled to take office, the Israeli government has prioritized settlement growth in the occupied West Bank.
The first of the new administration’s policy directives, which was released on Wednesday by Netanyahu’s Likud party, commits to “advancing and developing settlement in all parts of the land of Israel – in the Galilee, Negev, Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria,” the Biblical names for the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
The decision might put the next administration in conflict with some of Israel’s closest friends, notably the United States, which is against the building of settlements on occupied land.
In addition to the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, Israel also took control of the West Bank in 1967.
The West Bank is what the Palestinian Authority (PA) envisions as the core of a future independent state. But despite the fact that these Jewish colonies are against international law, Israel has built dozens of them and today calls nearly 500,000 of them home.
The Israeli military, which runs separate highways intended to be used only by Jewish settlers, significantly restricts the movement of the approximately 2.5 million Palestinians who live in the occupied West Bank.
The ultra-Orthodox parties, a far-right ultranationalist religious faction, and his Likud party make up Netanyahu’s new cabinet, which is the most religious and conservative in Israel’s history. On Thursday, it is anticipated to be sworn in.
Several of Netanyahu’s most important friends are ultranationalist West Bank settlers, notably the majority of the Religious Zionism party.
Bezalel Smotrich, the new finance minister, declared in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday that there would be no “altering the political or legal status” of the West Bank, breaking with years of support for annexing the entire region.
He called out the “feckless military government” in charge of Israeli settlers’ civilian affairs.
Smotrich is slated to take over the military administration in the occupied West Bank in his second position, a newly created one as a minister in the defense ministry. Smotrich is an illegal settler himself.
After being dismissed from office last year after holding the position of prime minister from 2009 to 2021, Netanyahu is now back in office. He will assume office while facing accusations of accepting bribes, betraying trust, and fraud, all of which he vigorously rejects.
Widespread policy changes sought by Netanyahu’s allies risk alienating significant segments of the Israeli people, escalating tensions with the Palestinians, and putting Israel at odds with the US and American Jews.
The administration of US President Joe Biden has declared its adamant opposition to settlement growth and has previously chastised the Israeli government for it.
